661 ff 




THE DIETETICS. 



BY 



E. J. DAVID 



• 



SAN FRANCISCO : 

luteruational Printing Co., 729 Montgomery Street 
1905- 



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'THE LIBRAftY C r . . 

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Two Goaios «£i»ivae 
i OCT, 10 1905 

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PREFACE. 



Attracted toward the Cooking profession by its 
deep mysteries I come to understand its gigantic 
importance; its vast oppoirtunities and its brilliant 
I'uture ; I sought to demonstrate and prove these ex- 
traordinary importance, opportunities and future to 
the professional Cook and to the Public. In January 
1901 I published a pamphlet, "The Chemical Cook", 
in which I expounded few new theories and many 
suggestions for the benefit of the profession and of 
humanity. During the intervening years from that 
publication and of to day, I kept busy to formulate 
new ideas on the Cook 'is business and advocate the 
foundation of a High School of Dietetics in several 
lengthy letters Sv^nt to the Cooks' Association of the 
Pacific Coast, San Francisco, California, of which I 
am a Member almost since its organization some 
years ago. 

That Association was fortunate to have at its 
head honest and good business men, fair and broad 
minded, intelligent and energetic, who appreciated 
my efforts to raise the Cook's profession. Most of 
the Members speak several languages, and great 
many of them travelled and worked all over the 
World, and isomo are recognized past Masters in 
their profession ; it is an honor for a professional 
Cook to belong to that organization. Before an 
applicant is admitted to Membership he undergoes 
a cnreful examination as to its capacity in Cooking, 



— 4 - 

and further, must give proof of his knowledge dur- 
ing a certain period called initiation. Polities are 
rigorously prohibited at the meetings and proceed- 
ings of the Association, and any Member convicted 
of behavior unbecoming of a gentleman is fined or 
expelled from the Association according to the 
gravity of the offense. The number of Members 
fluctuates slightly around five hundred, but all of 
them are able- intelligent, fair minded, energetic 
and progressive men. General meetings are held 
every month. The Association has a very fair 
financial situation and a good income. 

No men are better fitted than the Members of 
the Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast for the 
foundation of the original and first High School of 
Dietetics of the whole World, and there is no doubt 
that before long the creation of such a School will 
become a fact. 

No sioience can be compared as important and 
useful as the Dietetics; its Masters and Pupils 
will share of that importance everywhere they go. 
Without the professional Cook high civilization can 
not exist ; they ought to go hand in hand in the path 
of advancement for still more progress. 
San Francisco, j\ugust, 1905. 



CHAPTER 1 



THE DIETETICS. 



Dietetics, as Webster informs us, is that part of 
Medicine which relates to diet or food ; Webster 
simply took the word with his signification from the 
old Greek and Latin languages. Webster knew the 
elasticity of the same word since he gave, in his 
Dictionary, many oither significationis to which one 
more might properly be added, as its Greek and 
Latin roots lend themselves marvelously to that use : 
that little known word of Dietetics will henceforth 
designate a new science or rather the scientific or- 
ganization of the old profession of Cooking. Diete- 
tics is the science that comprehends the knowledge 
of the physical, chemical, physiological, and kineti- 
al properties of the foods, be these in natural state, 
mixed or combined ; be these prepared with the help 
cf a high, ordinary or low temperature; the know- 
ledge too of the human body to the physical, chemi- 
cal, physiological and kinetical point of view; in a 
few words, the denomination designates the trans- 
formation of the old Cooking into a science, — the 
Dietetics, — having a logical basis susceptible of gi- 
gantic progress. 



— 6 — 
Extracted from "The Chemical Cook". 



Page 6. — "No science is more singular, more 
attractive, more extraordinary, more marvelous 
tlian the Dietetieal science, though it is yet in an 
embryo state. It ought to be the highest of all 
sciences and certainly will rank first because it is 
the most useful and the most indispensable of all 
sciences. MJore than the race and heredity, foods 
form intelligent, strong and energetic men; make 
the enterprising and ruling nation®; its scientific 
gji'd progressive development will be the best gua- 
ranty against famine, and consequently against re- 
volts and bloody revolutions. The progress of the 
science ^of Dietetics will considerably decrease the 
multiple, painful and terTibre''maladies which have 
their origin in a bad feeding...." 

Page 14. — "To know how the phenomenon of 
life exists it is necessary to study the different 
organs during the digestion, and the role performed 
by the foods in the act of nutrition. It is easy to 
understand th great importance of these studies if 
we think that the four-fifths of the diseases that 
c-ffect humanity have no other origin than an irra- 
tional feeding... 

Page 22. — "Human life, seen from the chemical 
standpoint, derives from a successive serie of chemi- 
al actions very complicated, among which the oxyd- 
8tion plays the first role. These chemical actions, 
to sum them up in a general way, are a dissociation 
of the natural organic combinations of the foods in 



— 7 — 

rheir primitive elements and the formation of new 
combinations. In all chemical actions a certain 
quantity of heat is produced or its equivalent, the 
electricity, manifests itself; it is to that heat and 
to its electrical equivalent produced by the dissocia- 
tion of the foods and the creation of new combina- 
tions that the human being owes its characteristic 
temperature, its life or electricity. The production 
of the heat or vital electricity is measured to the 
body by special ways and means... 

Page 24. — "Before to study the composition of 
the foods it is logical to know the chemical compo- 
sition of the human body : eighteen elements form- 
ing more than one hundred and twenty combina- 
tions compound the human body... 

Page 25. — ^"The body is formed of different 
chemical elements, it is indispensable that the foods 
contain the same elements. The importance of the 
knowledge of the chemical elements of the foods 
and of their compounds is beyond question; such 
knowledge is necessary for a scientific and correct 
preparation of the foods... 

Page 34. — "The aim of Cooking has been, until 
today, defined as an operation to make the foods 
more agreeable to thei eye, to the smell, to the taste, 
and more digestive. The explanation, logical 
enough in itself, is given by the cooks, gastronoms 
and all the learned men that busied themselves with 
the Dietetical science. Seen from the chemical stand- 
point. Cooking is the transformation of the foods, 
generally possessed of active or latent life, with the 



help of heat, into single chemical combinations easier 
to dissociate... 

Page 35. — "Cooking plays another important 
role by killing microbes and small organisms, by 
destroying living germs of the diseases which exist 
in the foods or have settled upon these foods and 
are possessed of enough strength to attack the hu- 
man organs coming within their range... 

Page 37. — "Cooking recipes are without num- 
ber and still less numberable are their denomina- 
tions. The Chef cooks the most experienced are far 
from to understand each other on the signification 
of the lormulas and on the composition of these 
formulas. Actual Cooking is well compared to the 
ancient Medicine and Alchemy... 

Page 42. — "Scientific men, the ablest in matters 
of public alimentation, agree to recognize the pre- 
sent state of inferiority of the culinary science com- 
pared to the progress m"ade in the other sciences. 
Nothing precise exists, everything is routine and 
uncertainty in the work, the use of mixtures and 
the combinations of the foods. Present Cooking is 
only a compilation of empiritic recipes. The most 
eminent Cooks: Careme, Dubois, Delie, Gouffe, Ran- 
hofer have left only culinary books full of formulas, 
where the fancy and imagination fill the greatest 
part; there exists no coordination, no indication of 
the reason to be of these formulas and of their che- 
mical and physiological properties. Some able 
Chemists as Dumas. L^ebig, Payen, Voit, Playfair, 
Ranke, Atwater have opened the practical and log- 



— 9 — 

ical side of the important question of feeding human 
bemgs by some analysis and conseiencious observa- 
tions, but they have only touched the raw foods, 
leaving out the prepared foods though the main 
point of the Dietetics. Some famous physiologists, 
such as: Huxley, Magendie, Beale, Brown, Dujar- 
din, Pavy, Bernard, studied the organs of the diges- 
tion and disclosed the mysterious transformations 
that the foods undergo until their complete assimil- 
ation, while the knowledge on the microbes, germs 
and small organisms in general, and the role they 
play in the human life, received a powerful stimulus 
through the marvelous works of Pasteur and Kock. 
All these effort? furnish the embryonary elements 
for the creation of a new science : the Dietetics. The 
future of the new science is full of the most brilliant 
promises; no famine could be possible with the 
Dietetics; the well being and the general health of 
the people will be increased in gigantic propor- 
tions... 

Page 45. — ''Against the pessimistic propheties 
of misanthrop learned men the centuries to come 
will afford to the toilers, notwithstanding their 
number, a life more easy and more comfortable than 
presently, and make the necessities of life cheaper 
and of a remarkable uniformity of price all over the 
World... 

Page 48. — "Scientific feeding will form the 
prominent natiors of the future... 

"Bad cooking, bad foods are the source of 
great many diseases... 

"No science merits more deep study than 



— ro 



Dietetics, because from the knowledge and applica- 
tion of its principles depend the health and longevi- 
ty, the development of the body, of the intelligen-ce 
and of the morality... 



Extracts from some letters addressed to the Cooks' 

Association of the Pacific Coast, San Francisco, 

California. 



San Francisco, May 15th, 1903. 
' ' Gentlemen, 

"I have the honor to commiinicate to you a 
proposition for the future well-being of the Members 
of this Association and of the Cooks in general ; and 
too, as an American citizen, do my share in pushing 
the country ahead in the field of sciences. 

"My proposition is this: to spread by publicity 
in all forms the idea of organization of the Art of 
Cooking into a science as and for the reasons speci- 
fied hereinafter : to spread the necessity of the crea- 
tion of a High School of Dietetics in San Francisco... 

" Ideas and projects, like eggs, need a long in- 
cubation to hatch properly and familiarize every- 
body with it before they can be made realities... 

"Why? How? What are the new science of 
Dietetics and the High School of Dietetics? What 
do they mean, and what good they may bring to the 
Members of this Association, and how are they to 
make this country prominent in sciences? I give 



you hereinafter all the informations thought neces- 
sary... 

"Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted and 
lost annually that could and can be saved... 

"The field of Dietetics is praetically unex- 
plored... 

"We need to organize the so-called Art of Cook- 
ing by adding the practical study of the Chemistry 
and of the physiological properties of the foods to 
that of practical cooking and preparing foods... 

"I understand that the Cook's profession can 
be elevated and made peer with all the liberal pro- 
fessions and enjoy their large social privileges. 

"What is Science but organized knowledge. The 
"Art of Cooking", as the profession of the Cook is 
sometimes called, is not an art to the strict meaning 
of the word, since Art possesses a recognized artis- 
tic standard and there is none in Cooking as in any 
science. True Art too is not ephemeral and vapor- 
ous as are the productions of the self styled "ar- 
tistic Cooks". Cooking is neither a science since it 
has no system, no scientific organization, no high 
school. Cooking is something indefinite that needs 
only a basis of some kind to step higher than any 
other branch of human activity. The teachings of 
the few schools of Cooking that are existing today 
are merely empiric and follow a routine almost 
twenty centnries old, with no hope, no desire and 
no means to do better. The Cook of today learns his 
business as did the physician-surgeon-pharmacist- 
barber of yore, by practice without any preliminary 



— 12 

study of the foods he uses; his practical knowledge 
differs widely and no standard of this knowledge 
exists.,. 

"The history of the creation and development 
of any trade and of any science proves conclusively 
the difficulties that beset such a stupendous under- 
taking. Great many lives, colossal wealth and an 
immense amount of energy were spent to bring up 
to date Medicine, Chemistry, Engineering and other 
sciences, and yet there is much left to do... 

"We will have to establish a High School of 
Dietetics with power of granting degrees... 

"The aim of the High School of Dietetics is to 
form practical ard theoretical Cooks possessing ex- 
tensive knowledge of the Chemistry and Phy- 
siology... 

"I know that great many of the Cooks do not 
feel the want of such knowledge because they do 
not know of its existence and also because they do 
not see how it could help them in their business... 

"Progress is in the direction of simplification 
of the complex processes of labor, and the creation 
and skillful management of wealth to increase the 
resources, comforts, and happineeis of humanity. 
The foremost industrial prominence and great pros- 
perity of the United States have been attained by 
the constant endeavors to replace complex processes 
by means more simple and perfect. The wants of 
civilization and the effects of competition require 
the effective application of labor, time and mater- 
ials. The probable influence of the new science of 
Dietetics will be far reaching... 



— 13 — 

"In the present istate of tlie laws of this coun- 
try no School of Dietetics can be created and exist 
unless liberally asssisted by donations and subscrip- 
tions, but it is not to be believed that the American 
people will quietly look on and see hundreds of 
millions of dollars worth of products annually 
wasted and entirely lost and not make an effort to 
save a portion of it, if satisfied that the means of 
doing iso are within their reach... 

"To found the first real scientific school of 
Dietetics of the whole World many hard hammer- 
ings to drive the new idea into the heads of even the 
moist intelligent and progressive people are positive- 
ly needed. To spread the idea is the first step to 
materialize the idea... 

"California is one of the most picturesque 
iaiUfds in the World ; its dimiate is healthy and agree- 
able ; its products are earlier and excellent ; its 
hotels and restaurants are good, they ought to be- 
come the best in the World. California is a land of 
flowers and sunshine ; with a science enabling its 
Cooks to give out prepared foods to strengthen and 
build up mathematically strong people, to scientific- 
aliy prolong life, to develop gastronomy, the tour- 
ists and rich people of the whole World, in search 
cf pleasure and health, v/ill come in California in 
great numbers and help to build up, in exchange of 
health and pleasure, one of the richest States in the 
Union... 

"I do not doubt of the birth of the science of 
Dietetics with its own schools from the ashes of the 
o.ld so-called "Art of Cooking"... 



— 14 — 

"I know too much for not to add that the birth 
cf a science in this great country will do more than 
even a successful war to keep it from oblivion in the 
centuries to come. Eaces and nations disappear 
from the Earth, but Arts and Sciences never!... 



San Francisco, May 30th., 1903. 
"Gentlemen, 

■ "In my letter dated 15th inst. I preconized a 
School of Dietetics, hinting the numerous advant- 
ages that might come from such School for the 
Cooks in general and for the whole country; 1 will 
clearly demonstrate in this note by a striking 
example taken among thousands, of the high im- 
portance of such a school of Dietetics and the 
probable value of its teachings... 

"To demonstrate beyond doubt to the Members 
of this Association the real value and vast impor- 
tance of a School of Dietetics I give hereinafter a 
common example of every day business, involving 
an industry whose products yearly are at least one 
hundred million dollars: the canning of Roast Beef... 

"The Chemist is not yet able with his retort 
and reactifs to make the difference between a wine 
worth four cents a bottle and a wine worth four 
dollars a, bottle. No rational analysis of prepared 
foods has ever been made. The universal "Beef a 
la Mode" is yet waiting for the analysis... 



— 15 — 

"Here is a peculiar bankruptcy of the s'cieaice 
all along the line of Dietetics; the experimental 
Chemist has carefully shunned the Dietetics because 
of its almost insurmountable difficulties and incom- 
prehensible mysteries; here is the opportunity of 
the intelligent and progressive Cook... 



San Francisco, March 13th., 1905. 

"Gentlemen, 

"Why should the Cooks of today not look for 
improvement in their splendid profession which 
ought to be at the very head of all the existing 
trades and professions? Do not they consume alone 
more billions of dollars worth than do all the other 
trades and professions gathered together? And 
where is the up-to-date school where they learn the 
proper and economical use of these billions of dol- 
lars worth? Merely the school of apprenticeship 
born with the family and several hundred thousand 
years old, and few schools of Cooking teaching old 
mouldy recipes and formulas for newly wed people... 

"All the trades, industries, sciences have made 
gigantic progress, alone Cooking has remained sta- 
tionary. The old times inn barely able to accom- 
modate few people, costing few thousand dollars, 
doing a business of few thousand dollars, run by 
the proprietor and his family, and occasionally few 
helps, has made place for the luxurious and splendid 
modern hotels and restaurants able to cater each for 



— i6 — 

several thousand people, costing several million 
dollars each to build, doing- a business of great many 
million dollars each, and having each an army of 
help. Times have changed so the Cooking profes- 
sion must go ahead for better... 

"There are progressive schools of Chemistry 
Pharmacy, Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Engineer- 
ing, Mining, Railroading, Navigating, Waring, Arts 
and Letters, there ought to be in Dietetics. 

"The Dietetics consumes yearly in the United 
States alone eight billion dollars of goods for the 
maintenance and the comfort of life, and to learn 
the use of these billions of dollars there exists the 
very discutable apprenticeship without any possible 
progress... ; ■ : 

"Times wid come when the Dietetics will be 
taught in every hamlet of America ; the saving in 
money and life will be simply enormous... 

"In the centuries to come the new science of 
Dietetics will make it possible for the Earth to be 
peopled like a loaf of sugar or a comb of honey 
would be by the flies... 

"But before we have yet to found, to create 
the first and original modern School of Dietetics. 
Hundreds of million dollars are spent yearly in the 
teaching of mere speculative theories of no practical 
find material value whatever to the great majority 
of the people in the World; I do not see why a 
School of Dietetics, of which the utility and ne- 
cessity is beyond doubt and which would benefit the 
whole humanity, should not be created. 



— 17 — 

"Why should America, a young country, not 
take the opportunity to give birth to a new science, 
particularly a science dealing with the very life it- 
self and the use oi billions of dollars, a science more 
important and useful than all the other hundred 
sciences and arts put together ; there is much moire 
glory, honor and profit in such a new science than 
even a successful war. 

"Why should the Cooks' Association of the 
Pacific Coast not be the pioneer of the creation of 
the new science and of the foundation of the new 
Institution"? Nothing would be so easy in following 
closely on the great lines of the school of Pharmacy, 
although the matters are widely different ; what has 
been done in the pharmaceutical field can be done 
in the Dietetical field, vastly more important. In 
the United States alone, four hundred million dol- 
lars represent largely the amount of the consump- 
tive business of the pharmacist when eight billion 
dollars would be a low estimate in the Dietetical 
consumptive business. Dietetics alone consumes 
yearly more value than all the other trades, pro- 
fessions and arts put together, the wonder is to see 
how such a formidable amount of wealth is used up 
without previous practical as well as theoretical 
training. 

"The organization of the Cooking profession 
into a Science — the Dietetics — and its teaching in 
special schools will put America far ahead in the 
scientifical field from all the other competitors, for 
there exists no science more useful and more impor- 
tant in the World than the Dietetics since it deals 



— i8 — 



directly with the life and health, comfort and wel- 
fare of the whole humanity. 

"America first in science, will say the future 
historian... 



San Francisco, April 17th., 1905. 

..."The Dietetics being a science based on facts 
and experiments will surely extirpate most of the 
terrible diseases that decimate humanity and will 
scientifically build up strong men and women, and 
consequently will save millions of lives and vastly 
increase the average length of life The Dietetics as 
ct progressive science will, too, increase by fiftyfold 
the present capacity of mother Earth to feed more 
people than the present population... 

"The Dietetics will have and will find rules, 
methods and precise formulas, and by the use of 
these rules, methods and formulas decrease the 
enormous waste m foods and save every year several 
hundred million dollars in the United States alone... 

"To work hard and be of utmost stubborness in 
the pursuit of the object until accomplished is the 
cnly way to succeed, I know of no other... 

"The matters concerning the future Institution 
are too important for to act lightly, and to hurry 
we risk to make dangerous mistakes, so it is better 
go ahead slowly and carefully... 



CHAPTER II 



THE HiGH SCHOOL Of DSETETSCS. 



Inducements to Young Men. 



The Dietetics offers to the intelligent and 
energetic young men an unlimited field for original 
works, a fair living and chances to win fortune. 
Every hotel and restaurant in the World employ 
Cooks. There aa^e humdreds of thousaai'd Cooks hold- 
ing lucrative positions in the United States. There 
are Cooks everywhere in the World ; from a be- 
ginner with 600 dollars a year to those whose es- 
tablished reputation makes from 3,000 to 10,000 dol- 
lars a year. Cooks whose ability as experts in spe- 
cial lines is recognized obtain still greater remunera- 
tion. Through the new school of Dietetics good 
opportunity will be afforded to become a high class 
Cook. There will be several degrees of proficiency 
as the student htis completed all his courses or made 
only part of them. The courses will be three years 
with a required stage of two years more in one or 
more of first class hotels or restaurants. 



20 

Subjects to be Taught. 

Mathematics. — Physicsi. — Chemistry. — Physiology. — 

Cookery. — ^Bakery. — Pastry. — Confectionery. — 

Preserves. — ^Beverages. — Artistic Cookery. 

In fact, pupils will be taught theoretically and 
practically from the building up of a fire to the 
making of the highest artistic cookery; how to feed 
a man as well as how to feed a million of men ; how 
to produce the greatest amount of vital electricity 
at the lowest cost ; how to prepare foods for a baby 
as well as for an old man under the different 
climates; how to build up scientifically strong men 
and women. 



The Building. 

The new Institution will have its own building 
to be divided into: 1° School rooms; 2"" Laboratory 
and working rooms; 3° Up to date Library on foods 
and their uses; 4° Museum of foods and cooking 
apparatus; 5° Meeting rooms for the Founders of 
the Institution. 



Progress Made. 

At the meeting held, March 14th, 1905, by the 
Members of the Cooks' Association of the Pacific 
Coast, in their rooms, 11 Stockton Street, San Fran- 
cisco,- California, a resolution was proposed and 
voted to the unanimity to approve and accept the 



— 21 — 

offer of twenty-five thousand dollars made by the 
Author for the foundation of an up to date School 
of Dietetics in the City of San Francisco, as al- 
ready sketched. 

Those twenty-five thousand dollars are the 
amount of a prize offered by the "American Grape 
Acid Association" of San Francisco, California, to 
the inventor of a process or of a formula for the 
utilization of grapes for the fabrication of tartaric 
acid and cream of tartar which are the basis of the 
best baking powders of which the consumption is 
enormous in the United States. The Author was a 
participant in the solution of the problem and 
offered the prize, if won and given, to the Cooks' 
Association of the Pacific Coast for the object above 
specified. The process is patented (caveated). 

In the same meeting the Members of this Asso- 
ciation after further informations given on the pro- 
posed High School of Dietetics and on a motion 
made by the Author to that object, passed a resolu- 
tion to petition the Congress at Washington for an 
appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars, inde- 
pendently of the eventual prize above mentioned, to 
make sure the prompt creation of the High School 
of Dietetics. The Author stated that three hundred 
and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars were ne- 
cessary to put the new Institution on a solid and 
durable basis, but that a good and conclusive begin- 
ning could be made with twenty-five to forty 
thousand dollars, for once the iitility of the new 
School of Dietetics demonstrated beyond doubt to 
the Public at large, it will be an easy matter for the 



22 — 

Cooks' Association of the Pacific Coast to gather all 
the necessary funds for the creation of similar Insti- 
tutions in all the great cities of the United States, 
and later on all over the World. 

Through these efforts the project of a High 
School of Dietetics has begun to abandon the 
ethereal form of the verbosity and take on a kind of 
material form of reality. 



Few Words to the Wise. 

Detractors may, as usual, raise lots of objections 
against that High School of Dietetics because of its 
newness or seeming complexity, but when hungry 
they will readily agree without any exception that 
a good, nicely cooked and succulent steak or its 
substantial equivalent is worth much more than any 
kind of diatrib, rethoric, music or bad cooking. 
Said the wisdom of nations: "Empty stomach has 
no ear"; or "An empty sack cannot stand up". 
Bad cooking poisons slowly and kills more people 
than wars and epidemics. 

When out or without work famished working- 
men seeing their families starving, congregate 
menacingly in the streets of the great cities of the 
World, shouting' "bread or lead", and ready for 
everything, it takes something more substantial 
than words and speeches to calm and appease them ; 
at that critical time few loaves of bread possess 
more soothing influence upon these irritated and 



— 23 — 

hungry workingmen than the most brilliant speech 
of a new Demosthen, People can live years without 
hearing a voice or music, or seeing beautiful things, 
but they can not live much longer than a few days 
without eating and drinking. Facts are facts, the 
stormiest social weather can not blow them away, 
instead the lightest breeze makes the nicest and 
softest words disappear like thin fogs. 

In this epoch Avhen the necessities of life are so 
dear and make material living so costly, I thought it 
would lighter the charges of the people in trying to 
organize a science that will learn how to make the 
best of the foods and produces that mother Earth 
gives us, and have that science taught in a special 
school, (the High School of Dietetics) of which the 
principles and knowledge applied to every day life 
will increase the average length of life and realize 
an appreciable economy. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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